2012 Year in review

By Daily News staff

Published: Monday, December 31, 2012 at 12:26 PM.

-Armed defenders not charged in burglary deaths

On April 27, prosecutors in Onslow County decided to not press charges against two Marines and one civilian who fought for their lives and killed two local men who were burglarizing their Jacksonville home on April 15. District Attorney Ernie Lee refused to publicly identify the residents involved in the shooting. He said it was clear from the evidence that the state’s Castle Doctrine, which allows for deadly force in defending one’s home, and self defense laws apply in the case.

- Taxi cab driver assaulted

In the early morning hours of Sunday, Sept. 9, a Surf City cab driver was attacked by a Marine after a misunderstanding about cab fare. The cab’s dashboard had a video camera that documented the entire attack. The video received national attention by media outlets. While the cab driver would undergo months of recovery from facial reconstruction surgery, the Marine charged with the assault stayed in mental facility before being officially charged with felony assault and was then granted a request to leave the state for inpatient treatment for his issues. A court date has not yet been set for the Marine allegedly involved.

- Victims ID’d as Marine, wife

A Marine and his wife were found dead their house on Hargett Street on Oct. 23. The wife had two gunshot wounds and the Marine had one, apparently self-inflicted, wound. Jacksonville Police found the couple after being tipped off by a family member who was worried about the wife and hadn’t heard from her. Police had to make their way inside because the door was deadbolted from the inside. The couple had only been married since February 2012, and both were from Fairfield County, Ohio. The female victim, Jessica Hall, was later remembered, along with 50 others, at a vigil for victims of domestic violence in North Carolina. Each victim lost their lives at the hands domestic violence.

In a local government drama that played out over the summer and fall, the Onslow County Board of Commissioners and the Jacksonville City Council squared off over moving county offices out of downtown and into an industrial part on U.S. 258.

With the county requesting the Onslow Water and Sewer Authority to run sewer pipes from Richlands at a cost to taxpayers, city officials made an eleventh hour decision to turn over sewer lines and wash their hands of the mostly empty Burton Park.

County commissioners voted unanimously in late-July to move several offices out of leased or aging buildings and into a planned $22 million government center in Burton Park, which is more than three miles outside of Jacksonville.

The city objected to the move, citing previous verbal agreements between prior ruling bodies. The deal was said to include the trade of property downtown so that the county could build a five-story jail and sheriff’s office. In return, the county was to build an office building downtown.

Keeping county offices downtown was important to revitalization efforts, city officials said.

County officials said they were not bound by prior agreements — if any were made — and moving offices to Burton Park was in the best long-term interests of county residents.

n Bright back again

A former Onslow County commissioner tossed his hat into the ring in 2012 and became the top vote getter for that office in both the primary and general election.

Retired Jacksonville Deputy Police Chief Jack Bright — who previously elected to the board in 2000 and appointed for a short period in 2008 — ran again to handedly win election.

Bright, a Republican, had already pushed incumbent Bill Keller, a retired Marine colonel, out of the election during the May primary and went on to take his seat in the November general election with 14.97 percent of the vote.

Republican Incumbents Paul Buchanan, Barbara Ikner, W.C. Jarman and Lionell Midgett won re-election. Buchanan was named chairman and Ikner was named vice chair of the board.

The three Democrats who ran finished at least three percentage points down.

- GOP, the party of choice

Onslow County locked itself in as a red county during November’s election. The majority of Onslow County voters cast ballots for Republicans in every race.

A loser on the national stage, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney mopped up in Onslow County winning 63 percent of the vote.

Straight party voting, which doesn’t include the office of president, went 56 percent for Republicans and 42 percent for Democrats with a total of 26,391 people voting.

The only Democrat to win in Onslow County was Roy Cooper who ran unopposed for N.C. Attorney General.

Five of five Republicans running for a seat on the county board won election.

- Cell phone searches

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown caused a stir among his deputies in early 2012 when he collected and searched their private cell phones.

Brown said he wasn’t violating the privacy of his deputies by collecting their privately-owned cell phones. He said he wanted to determine whether deputies were deputies were squandering county resources by spending too much time on their phones during work hours.

Several deputies complained to The Daily News that they felt the sheriff stepped over the line in examining their cell phones which contained private messages and photographs.

Whether Brown abused his power depended on what policies he had in place, according to the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Brown provided The Daily News an undated policy establishing that deputies who use their personal cell phones on the job must make available their billing records. The policy did not address examination of cell phones.

The discovery that a detention officer at Onslow County Jail was allegedly allowing her cell phone to be used by inmates was the catalyst for the phone searches, Brown said.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Brown could have determined whether deputies were spending too much time on their phones without confiscating them, and the action constituted a major invasion of privacy concern.

CRIME

-Armed defenders not charged in burglary deaths

On April 27, prosecutors in Onslow County decided to not press charges against two Marines and one civilian who fought for their lives and killed two local men who were burglarizing their Jacksonville home on April 15. District Attorney Ernie Lee refused to publicly identify the residents involved in the shooting. He said it was clear from the evidence that the state’s Castle Doctrine, which allows for deadly force in defending one’s home, and self defense laws apply in the case.

- Taxi cab driver assaulted

In the early morning hours of Sunday, Sept. 9, a Surf City cab driver was attacked by a Marine after a misunderstanding about cab fare. The cab’s dashboard had a video camera that documented the entire attack. The video received national attention by media outlets. While the cab driver would undergo months of recovery from facial reconstruction surgery, the Marine charged with the assault stayed in mental facility before being officially charged with felony assault and was then granted a request to leave the state for inpatient treatment for his issues. A court date has not yet been set for the Marine allegedly involved.

- Victims ID’d as Marine, wife

A Marine and his wife were found dead their house on Hargett Street on Oct. 23. The wife had two gunshot wounds and the Marine had one, apparently self-inflicted, wound. Jacksonville Police found the couple after being tipped off by a family member who was worried about the wife and hadn’t heard from her. Police had to make their way inside because the door was deadbolted from the inside. The couple had only been married since February 2012, and both were from Fairfield County, Ohio. The female victim, Jessica Hall, was later remembered, along with 50 others, at a vigil for victims of domestic violence in North Carolina. Each victim lost their lives at the hands domestic violence.

- Two Carteret homicides

The year 2012 was an unusually busy one for the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office, which saw two homicide investigations.

In June, the sheriff’s office, with assistance from NCIS agents from Camp Lejeune, made three arrests in connection with the shooting deaths of father and son, Albert and Duane Correll, outside their Beaufort home.

Jhaden Davis, 21, a Navy corpsman at Camp Lejeune, and Joseph Pirrotta, 24, a recently discharged Navy corpsman living in Beaufort, were charged with two open counts of murder, one count of armed robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

Brandon Smallwood, 23, also a Navy corpsman at Camp Lejeune, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of murder.

In September, a reported house fire on N.C. 24 in the Gales Creek community became a homicide investigation after the body of 90-year Goldie Hall was found in a field in Newport a week after a fire at her home.

Her great niece, Rhonda Hagan of Newport, was arrested the day Hall’s body was located and charged with an open count of murder.

Hagan’s mother, Phyllis Henderson Williams, 63, was arrested in December accused of withholding information from investigators, failing to report a death and helping her daughter hide Hall’s death. Investigators have said that there was a dispute over money.

- Newman makes first appearance

A registered sex offender from Carteret County faces child abduction and other charges following a high profile case in which he is accused of abducting a 12-year-old girl.

Timothy Newman, 38, of Bogue is accused of leaving North Carolina with Abigaile Lefevers and traveling across South Carolina and Georgia before being apprehended Sept. 26 in Florida with her.

Newman had reportedly been communicating with the girl, who was reported missing by her father on Sept. 24. Newman disappeared on the same day the girl went missing.

The search of Abigaile Lefevers sparked an Amber Alert that helped in locating the two.

District Attorney Scott Thomas said at the time of Newman’s first appearance in Carteret County court in October that they anticipate filing one or more felony sex offense charges against Newman.

Newman was placed on the sex offender registry in 2005 for convictions in connection with two counts of engaging in a sex offense with a14-year-old girl in Stokes County.

MILITARY

- Lejeune water bill signed into law

On Aug. 6, the president signed into law the bill that provides healthcare for the hundreds of thousands of sick Camp Lejeune veterans and their families following 30 years of water contamination on the base. The act does not provide compensation for deceased veterans or family members who have died as a result of the water contamination, but focuses on treating those who were affected by the water and still alive.

- Drawdown begins

The Marine Corps officially began the drawdown and restructuring of its forces with the start of Fiscal Year 2013 on Oct. 1. The Corps has four years to cut numbers from 202,100 active duty forces to 182,100 troops, and has until Sept. 30 to reach an endstate of no more than 197,300 troops, according to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act which outlines spending for the Department of Defense.

- Threat of sequestration looms

Sequestration loomed heavy over the military-minded in 2012. The provision of the 2011 Budget Control Act would automatically trigger a $500 billion in across-the-board defense spending cuts over the next decade.

The only way to prevent sequestration was for Congress to find equivalent savings by the new year, but with no plans or legislation on the floors making any progress and the deadline looming, sequestration posed a real threat to military bases in North Carolina just two weeks before the new year.

If sequestration were to take effect on Jan. 2, fiscal year 2013 would see $52 billion in cuts from the Department of Defense, and similar cuts would take effect each year until fiscal year 2012.

- Montford Point Marines receive Congressional Gold Medal

2012 was a special year for the Montford Point Marines. The Montford Point Marines received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor in the nation, in Washington D.C. June 27. The medal was awarded to nearly 370 of the original Montford Point Marines at Emancipation Hall. Through canes, walkers, and each others help, the Marines, now in their 80s, rose and accepted the long overdue medal. Since being awarded in D.C. the Montford Pointers have continued to celebrate the medal throughout the year locally at Montford Point, now Camp Johnson.

- Osprey crashes take lives

The V-22 Osprey made headlines this year with two major crashes, one of which left two New River Marines dead.

On April 11, an Osprey with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit went down in Morocco, killing two New River crew chiefs, Cpls. Robby Reyes and Derek Kerns. Marine Corps officials later cited pilot error after a rush of wind caused the plane to become unstable.

On June 13, an Air Force Osprey crashed in Hurlburt Field, Fla. and destroyed the $78 million aircraft in addition to injuring all five crew members.

This year’s crashes factored largely into Japan’s decision on whether or not to allow the Marine Corps to deploy the Osprey to American military bases in their country— a decision that wasn’t helped by reports of a New River Osprey making a “precautionary landing” off Lejeune Boulevard on Sept. 6.

- Afghan insider attacks

The current goal for the future of Afghanistan is to turn over all security responsibility to the Afghan people by 2014, and for American troops to leave within the same year. As training increased in 2012, so did the amount of Afghanis turning on their American counterparts.

By September, 51 troops — most of them American — had been killed in the so-called “Green on Blue” attacks in Afghanistan. A more recent number was not available.

TRAGEDY

-Fire kills three children (article Friday, Feb. 24 )

- A burned-out two-story house, smoldering debris and three flower bouquets were all that was left of a Southwest area home after an early morning fire on Feb. 23 killed three children, hospitalized five more and sent their mother to intensive care. The three children lost by the Pittman family were between the ages of 6-12. The children died of smoke inhalation. An investigation uncovered that the fire started because of an electrical malfunction of the refrigerator. It was ruled accidental.

MUNICIPALITIES

-Freedom Fountain

The new Freedom Fountain opened in downtown Jacksonville in September.

When the original Freedom Fountain at the Onslow County Courthouse was demolished a few years ago to make way for a new jail, the City of Jacksonville and partners began work on a new fountain with a much larger scope.

The fountain features a center jet dedicated to freedom, a trio of surrounding fountainheads representing the federal, state and local government. Fifty bubblers at the rim of the edgeless pool represent the 50 states.

Situated at New Bridge Street and Johnson Boulevard, the Freedom Fountain is meant to extend the reach of the Lejeune Memorial Gardens, located at the entrance to Camp Johnson, into downtown. The gardens include the Beirut Memorial, Onslow Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and 9/11 Memorial. A Corpsman Memorial, a Montford Point Marine Memorial and the Museum of the Marine are also planned within the gardens.

The new Freedom Fountain is surrounded on one side by wall arches that will house military sculptures meant to represent the five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

n Divided Swansboro board agrees to building moratorium

A building moratorium came to a close in December after a three-month effort by the Swansboro Board of Commissioners address the issue of building height along the town’s highway corridor.

A former provision in the town ordinance allowed a 75-foot height limit by special use permit along the commercial highway corridor along N.C. 24. The height limit within the rest of town is 35 feet.

A divided board of commissioners implemented a building moratorium on structures higher than 40 feet to give commissioners time to review the issue.

While the board generally agreed that 75 feet may be too high there was a lack of consensus on what the building height should be and debate over whether a higher limit was appropriate along the entire corridor.

Commissioners voted 4-1 to adopt ordinance changes in December that return the height limit to 35 feet but also agreed to implement the Gateway Corridor Study and to look at nodes along the corridor where a higher height limit may be appropriate.

n Hotel property saved

The year 2012 came to a close with apparent good news for Carteret County’s largest hotel.

A Georgia-based company bid $4.56 million for the Sheraton Atlantic Beach property during a foreclosure sale held in December on the steps of the Carteret County Courthouse.

Barring an upset bid, Newport Group Inc. out of Augusta, Ga., was in place to take over ownership of the property as the sole bidder. The company is a leading real estate development and management firm that specializes in hotel investments and operations.

Executive Vice President Marty Matfess indicated at the foreclosure sale that the company would reopen the property as a hotel but said it was premature to give details.

The Sheraton property is located on the oceanfront at Atlantic Beach. The nine-story hotel with banquet facilities closed for renovation after Hurricane Irene in September 2011 and has never reopened.

Renovation work was completed under the ownership of GR&S but a complaint was filed against the company in civil court in Carteret County by Texas-based Cotton Commercial USA, which claimed it was owed more than $1 million in repairs.

Since then the property has gone through a number of legal issues leading to an order of foreclosure.

- Swansboro hires new town manager

A new town manager took his place at Swansboro town hall in 2012.

David Harvell was hired by the Board of Commissioners in August after a nearly six-month search to replace former Manager Pat Thomas, who took a job as city manager of Southport.

The town received 98 applications for the position and narrowed the field to 10 finalists to interview.

Harvell was new to the position but not to the area.

He lives in Carteret County and was serving as assistant city manager in Havelock before taking on the Swansboro job. His experience also includes time as town manager in Atlantic Beach.